compare documents

[wghalvorsen]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

If I create a simple text-only document, save it, then save a new copy (using save as) without making any changes, Compare Documents (under Tools menu) works ok--that is, Word says there are no differences, as one would expect.
Now repeat this but with a simple text box (or just about anything else other than text) in the document. This time, Compare Documents will highlight everything in red, indicating that the entire document copy is different, although it looks exactly the same. This problem, which does not seem to occur in Word 2007 for Windows, renders the Compare Documents function practically worthless. Can anyone suggest a workaround for this problem?

 

[John McGhie]

Save the document as Plain Text format before comparing.

A Text Box is a class of "graphic". Compare Documents will not work
reliably with graphics.

Cheers

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

If I create a simple text-only document, save it, then save a new copy (using
save as) without making any changes, Compare Documents (under Tools menu)
works ok--that is, Word says there are no differences, as one would expect.
Now repeat this but with a simple text box (or just about anything else other
than text) in the document. This time, Compare Documents will highlight
everything in red, indicating that the entire document copy is different,
although it looks exactly the same. This problem, which does not seem to occur
in Word 2007 for Windows, renders the Compare Documents function practically
worthless. Can anyone suggest a workaround for this problem?

--

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[wghalvorsen]

Thank you, John, for your response.

Although technically your suggestion works, it does not seem to be very useful in practice. Imagine two people working on a report with figures, text boxes, and tables, plus all of the associated cross-references. Saving the document as plain text deletes all of the non-text elements and replaces the cross-references with error statements. So you have to re-assemble the formatted document, after reviewing the changes in the text copies, and re-insert all of the cross-references. Or, is there some magic way of re-assembling the formatted complete document that I am missing?

By the way, I want to use the compare documents feature to get around the document corruption problems that regularly occur when using Track Changes.

I should also point out that Word 2007 on the PC does not have this problem as far as I can tell.

Thanks again for your time.

 

[John McGhie]

Well, that's all we have on the Mac. That's what I use, because it's all
there is...

Complain to Microsoft, not me

Thank you, John, for your response.

Although technically your suggestion works, it does not seem to be very useful
in practice. Imagine two people working on a report with figures, text boxes,
and tables, plus all of the associated cross-references. Saving the document
as plain text deletes all of the non-text elements and replaces the
cross-references with error statements. So you have to re-assemble the
formatted document, after reviewing the changes in the text copies, and
re-insert all of the cross-references. Or, is there some magic way of
re-assembling the formatted complete document that I am missing?

By the way, I want to use the compare documents feature to get around the
document corruption problems that regularly occur when using Track Changes.

I should also point out that Word 2007 on the PC does not have this problem as
far as I can tell.

Thanks again for your time.

--

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]